Wireless communication systems transfer data packets between User Equipment (UE) to provide data communication services, like internet access, media streaming, and user messaging. Wireless communication systems allow users to move about and communicate over the air with access communication. Communication services include voice calls, data exchange, web pages, streaming media, or text messages, among other communication services.
To expand or enhance the wireless signal coverage of a wireless communication network, wireless communication relays may be added to locations not adequately covered by current network infrastructure. A relay repeats wireless signals exchanged between wireless devices and a wireless network access point. Without the signal repetition provided by the wireless relay, the coverage area of the wireless network access point may otherwise have not extended far enough to serve the wireless devices using the relay. Thus, a wireless relay provides a less resource intensive means for increasing wireless network coverage. Relay nodes typically backhaul traffic through a wireless link to a donor base station.
Some wireless communication networks and devices use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to exchange wireless data. In OFDM communication systems, a transmission bandwidth may be divided into subcarrier frequency channels and time slots creating resource blocks which may be allocated to a user for data transmissions. Allocating a user resource blocks with a distinct subcarrier frequency and time slot allows multiple users to more efficiency transmit and receive data from a network with minimal interference to other users.
Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) may be used to coordinate resource block allocations among neighboring cells to mitigate the effects of inter-cell interference. Inter-cell interference may impact UEs at cell edges. This issue may be even more complicated when a macrocell is overlapped by a small cell, such as a relay node. Using ICIC, the interference issues resulting from an adjacent cell may be reduced by splitting frequency ranges, varying power levels, turning on positive cell selection offsets, and synchronizing scheduling and blank sub-frames.
A donor base station is typically not aware of the use of ICIC between the wireless relay and the neighboring base station. This ICIC usage between the neighboring base station and the wireless relay may impact the capacity of the donor base station as resource blocks used between the neighboring base station and the wireless relay cannot be used by the donor base station. Since the donor base station is not aware of the ICIC usage, it will continue to transmit the same amount of data and signaling to the wireless relay as when the ICIC usage was not enabled. Unfortunately, this may result in an overflow of data and higher re-transmission rates.